Political Science

Since the 911 terrorist attacks, the United States military spending has skyrocketed. This has been as a result of the launching of three military operations by the Bush administration. These three operations are the Operation Enduring Operation which was aimed at flushing out the Taliban and the al Qaeda from Afghanistan. The Operation Noble Eagles which was aimed at increasing the security in the air and the Operation Iraq Freedom aimed at kicking out of power the dictatorship regime in Iraq and flashing out the insurgencies in the country (Belasco, 2009).

It has been estimated that the cost of the war on terrorism is the largest in the history of the United States surpassing the Vietnam War and the Second World War. However, the cost of the war in Iraq has always attracted the attention of financial analyst. The war in Iraq has been considered to be the most strenuous to the United States military budget since the war on terrorism was launched. In terms of military spending, war in Iraq comes second to the Second World War in the history of the United States. Analysts have argued that the cost of the war in Iraq has had a negative effect on the United States economy. The war has weakened the economy with it effects touching on the leading powers of mortgage companies in the United States. It is estimated that by the end of the war in Iraq, the military spending on the war will have surpassed three trillion dollars mark (Whitley, 2009).

Since the war started, the federal government had spent almost seven hundred billion dollars in the war up to the 2008 fiscal year. This is as opposed to the Vietnam War which spent less than seven hundred thousand billion dollars. The figure is however rising with every rising minute with the figure estimated to be about seven hundred and seventy billion dollars today. However, the figure is lower than the Second World War spending of about four trillion dollars when the figures are adjusted to take care of inflation.

Despite the high military spending in Iraq, at any the number of troops has been less as compared to the number that participated in the Vietnam War. At any time, the number of the troops in Iraq has been about a third of the number of troops deployed in the Vietnam War. Moreover, the number of soldiers lost in the Vietnam War has been over twelve times the number lost in the Iraq war. This has raised different questions on why the War has turned out to be a big burden. At the start of the war, the estimated spending of the war was a fraction of the figure the federal government has spent by today. The highest estimated cost by the Bush administrators was less than two hundred billion dollars or less. The officials hoped that the international community would join the Americans in the fight against terrorism and cut down the cost as it was the case of the Gulf War in the early 1990s. They also hoped that liberating Iraq with its rich oil fields, the United States would benefit more from the war (Glanz, 2009).

The war has attracted other costs as the number of contracted workers employed in Iraq by the United States government is more than the number of soldiers. The medical care required by the soldiers in the war has also been expensive when compared to other wars in the past increasing the cost further. The United States military combat doctors have been improved which has increased the cost of the war at the benefit of the soldiers. These improved and costly combat medical services have been able to save a big number of soldiers. The initial and long term medical services provided to the soldiers are expensive as compared to the previous wars. However, the high cost of the operation can be attributed the highly modernized and sophisticated equipment that were used in the war. A very large number of these expensive machineries have been destroyed in Iraq by roadside bombs by the insurgents and sandstorms. This was not the initial expectation of the administrators. The cost is however reducing as the new administration under President Obama has vowed to withdraw all the troops from Iraq. The cost of the war has also been very costly as the society loses young soldiers in the war (Cordesman  Sullivan, 2007).

In the 2010 fiscal year, the congress requested that the Department of Defense should be allocated 138.6 billion dollars as the cost of the war in Middle East. By the time the 2009 fiscal year budget was presented, the Department of Defense has spent about 944 billion dollars in response to the terrorist attack out of which 683 billion dollars funded the war in Iraq. Despite this high costs, the Bush warned the Americans that they were in danger unless they agreed to extend their military operations to fight terrorism (Belasco, 2009).